1. Field
One embodiment of the invention relates to a wireless communication device and a wireless communication system.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, a system has been provided that performs wireless communication between battery-operated wireless communication devices, in particular a system in which audio and video streaming data is transmitted and the audio/video is listened to/viewed by the user. In an example of such a system, audio data is reproduced on a music reproducing device, and the streaming audio data is transmitted over wireless communication such as Bluetooth® and the user enjoys the music with a wireless headphones.
In such a system, control is made to extend an available communication time in accordance with the remaining battery power of a device. Japanese Patent Application Publication (KOKAI) No. 2005-229363 discloses a wireless video communication device capable of reducing the number of frames encoded in case a drop in the battery voltage is detected and extend the battery run time.
Considering a case where both the device and the distant wireless communication device are battery-operated, the remaining power and battery run time usually depend on the capacity of the mounted battery and remaining battery power at the beginning of the current communication session as well as power consumption of an individual device. When the battery of a device of the distant party runs out although the battery power of another device is high enough, the user can no longer receive streaming data. The approach described in Japanese Patent Application Publication (KOKAI) No. 2005-229363 considers only the remaining battery power of a local device and fails to solve this problem.
Many of the wireless communication devices that transmit streaming data support a plurality of encoding formats. Power consumption of such a wireless communication device usually depends on an encoding system used and the software or hardware configuration of a wireless communication device even using the same encoding format.